Roy Halladay, a former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, was killed Tuesday at the age of 40 when his plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico.
The plane went down near Pasco County north of Tampa; investigators said the small plane was found upside down in shallow water north of Bailey’s Bluff in Holiday, Florida.
Pasco County Sheriff’s officials announced the news in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, saying Halladay was a friend with a “heart of gold.”
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Hallady, who retired in 2013, was born in Colorado and lived in Florida. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year. Since retirement he had taken up flying.
“I’ve been dreaming about flying since I was a boy but was only able to become a pilot once I retired from baseball,” he said in a tweet last month.
Halladay’s twitter feed was full of pictures of his plane, which was the ICON A5 Aircraft. In an article published by ICON Aircraft, the company said he received the first 2018 model.
The plane was a single engine plane, which held two people, but officials confirmed there was only one body found in the plane.
His father was also a pilot.
